Archive for July, 2011

Sellers you want an agent that is going to either take you around to see what your competition is or an agent that will go preview it before he or she gives you a listing price.

Today’s market is based on 5 things.

1) Price
2) Price
3) Price
4) Condition
5) location

Note the first three are so true.  Price is totally driving the market first and foremost.

Let me explain if you have a home that is in perfect condition but someone has a home listed at the same price that needs paint carpet and a good general cleaning and they both are priced exactly the same the one that is in better shape is going to sell.  Sounds logical right?  Folks think that REOs are all in bad shape, this is not always true! I love it when a seller tells me “Oh that house is a disaster I was in it”.  Well if I personally  went into it to see its condition so that I have a good idea of what to price it at.  If I notice that all that is needed on the REO home is a stove and refrigerator but the seller that I am about to work with wants to list there home at $20,000 more than the REO home, the seller is probably not realistic. And were not going to sell their home.

So again it is crucial that an agent goes and sees what the home looks like. What does your home have that the others don’t.  What shape is yours in compared to the rest of the inventory. Where does it sit, what I mean is does it back up to a busy street?  Is there power line behind it? Is there a garbage dump that you can smell when you walk out the door?  What are you comparing yourself too.

Never underestimate the buyers. They are not just looking in your subdivision.  Folks get very short-sited when a buyer is looking for a home. They look in a school district or at the very least a town.  They will look at all that is in the town or school district that is in there comfort price.  I say comfort price because more people today are not going to there max anymore meaning they maybe able to afford 400k but they are only willing to spend 300k they are actually thinking about ideas what happens if one of us loose our job? They don’t want to be selling as a short sale or loose their home to foreclosure. At the same time they want to see more today then ever before they don’t want just 250k – 300k they want anything that fits their criteria under 300k no minimum so 100 to 300k you’ll be surprised someone may say they want 4 bedrooms but if there is 3 bedrooms and a loft that can easily be turned into a 4th bedroom and it is 20k less then the 4 bedroom model you bet they want to see it.  Plus they want to know about taxes what are your taxes what are the average taxes in the subdivision have they fought there taxes?  How can I fight the tax bill?

Stay tuned for next session on how to see if your taxes are high and what you should do to fight real estate taxes on your home.  I will have something for you on that next week.

Looking for the right spot to call home? Ask why my clients think my marketing plan is the cats meow!